5 Easy Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Law Firm

For the modern law firm, social media is a marketing essential. By cultivating a well-rounded online presence, you increase community engagement and build rapport with new and repeat clients. Part of a healthy online brand presence is social media – it is indispensable if you truly want to reach your audience in a meaningful way.

In today’s article, we review why social media is so useful for businesses today. We also include a few essential tips that will help you instantly improve your firm’s social channels.

Today, we will answer:

• Why is social media so important?
• What social media channels are the most popular?
• What can I do to increase engagement on social media?
• Why should I share unique, high-quality content?

If you have any questions, please contact Haywood Consulting for a complimentary initial consultation. You can also complete our confidential law firm needs assessment to explore your firm’s challenges, needs, and goals.

Why Social Media?

If your firm doesn’t have any social media pages, or has given up managing a stagnant page, listen up. You are missing out on a powerful way to build your firm’s reputation, community rapport, and client base.

Billions of people worldwide use social channels like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Unsurprisingly, these platforms have quickly developed into essential brand management and outreach tools. For example, many customers will expect any qualified and reputable business, including law firms, to maintain a professional Facebook page. Likewise, peers in your field will likely try to find your firm on LinkedIn.

In conclusion, when customers, potential clients, or peers search for your firm on any platform, absence can harm your reputation. Luckily, it’s fairly simple to start and manage a basic presence.

Social Media Platforms

While countless social media platforms exist, only a select few draw the largest followings. These include Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Yelp, and Pinterest. At Haywood Consulting, we suggest that firms at least manage an active Facebook page for client access and interactions.

Professionally, it is also wise to maintain an updated and detailed LinkedIn page. You can read more about the benefits and drawbacks of each social platform here.

Quick Tips to Help You Boost Your Firm’s Social Media Presence

If you want to build social media engagement, the required steps can seem daunting. Below, we discuss a few critical aspects to help you get started. For more information, read Forbes’s article containing social media advice from small business owners.

Make a Plan

It is wise to develop a general plan or strategy when you begin to utilize social media. Because of the many options, it’s easy to get lost. At Haywood Consulting, we suggest you start slow and concentrate on one or two key platforms (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn) before expanding outreach. This will allow you to produce content, receive feedback, and make adjustments before expanding into other efforts. Further, when you make a plan, it will be easier to commit to your goals.

Remember:

• Choose attainable goals
• Don’t get distracted with too much at first
• Concentrate your efforts

Share Relevant Content

Content is the brick foundation of engagement. In order to maximize your potential, your firm should maintain an on-site blog that is shareable to major social channels. And when you update your blog, let your clients and colleagues know by posting it to all relevant platforms.

Thus, your law firm’s ultimate goal should be to create high quality content that provides value for your audience. Ensure that your information is updated, timely, factual, and informative.

When you produce quality content, you quickly identify yourself as a thought leader within your industry. Informative and useful content also builds trust with your audience, increasing the likelihood of engagement and lead generation.

Remember:

• Write thought-provoking pieces that inform your audience
• Vary content to avoid redundancy
• Create user-friendly pieces with limited legal jargon
• Create attractive images and headers that are shareable on social media

Connect with Like-Minded Audiences

The internet connects diverse people and populations throughout the world. Social media has a unique capacity to gather and influence like-minded people, including professionals. Utilize social media to introduce yourself and your firm to other leaders in your industry. Participate in though-provoking discussions and offer advice when able.

When you build relationships, you build a strong network that can easily begin to generate leads via your social media. Recognize the power of connection and use it to your advantage!

Remember:

• Build genuine relationships before engaging in sales discussions
• Join relevant groups for your industry to increase brand awareness
• When available, utilize social media to grow your professional network (e.g., LinkedIn)

Invest in Advertising

Like we discussed in last week’s post regarding search engine optimization (SEO), paid advertising provides numerous benefits. This is especially true when you start building your social media presence. While your firm’s pages cannot flourish from paid advertisements alone, this strategy can instantly “boost” your organic content and bring potential clients to your page.

In our opinion, when considering paid advertising on social platforms, it’s best to trust a professional. Industry experts’ knowledge will save you time and help you avoid costly errors.

Remember:

• Invest smartly
• Use paid advertising to supplement strong content
• Ideally, work with a professional

Use Engagement to Inform Future Efforts

See your firm’s social media presence as a lesson in trial and error. Certain posts will be very engaging, while others may inspire little interaction. Pay attention to your popular posts and analyze trends – what is it that makes these posts inspire your social community? Likewise, apply the same analysis to less successful posts – why did they fail?

As you hone and tailor your law firm’s social media presence, you’ll start to understand what your unique audience enjoys. That way, the content you produce will become more useful and more relevant for your clients. Such quality social media management builds a high level of trust and encourages new and repeat business.

Remember:

• Learn from your mistakes
• Analyze successful and unsuccessful posts
• Use previous efforts to inform and plan new content
• Engage with your community and adjust accordingly

Contact Haywood Consulting Today

For busy legal professionals, it can be highly difficult to juggle every aspect of business ownership. Social channels can help your firm achieve, but poorly managed pages can also do serious damage to your brand’s reputation. Haywood Consulting exists to solve everyday challenges and issues for immigration law firms across America. Don’t sweat social media – let our industry experts handle every step of the process.

We can work with you to establish objectives and goals, create quality content, manage every aspect of your page, and provide you with regular progress updates. Contact us today for a complimentary digital media and marketing consultation! You’ll talk with one of our marketing experts and receive quality feedback regarding your potential for growth.

You can also learn more about Haywood Consulting’s many service offerings, including marketing and digital media management, operational management, paralegal outsourcing, and technological support.